Vertot D'Aubœuf, Rene' Aubert De

, a very pleasing French historian, whose principal works have been
translated into English, was born at the castle of Bennetot,
in Normandy, Nov. 25, 1655, of a good family. Such was
his application to study, that in his seventeenth year he
maintained his last philosophical theses. Much against his
father’s will he entered among the Capuchins, and took
the name of brother Zachary, but the austerities of this
order proving hurtful to his health, he was induced to
exchange it for one of milder rules. Accordingly, in 1677,
he entered among the Premonstratenses, where he became
successively secretary to the general of the order, curate,
and at length prior of the monastery. But with this he
does not appear to have been satisfied, and after some
other changes of situation, became a secular ecclesiastic.
In 1701 he came to Paris in that character, and was in
1705 made an associate of the academy of belles lettres.
His talents soon procured him great patronage. He was
appointed secretary of commands to the duchess of Orleans
Bade-Baden, and secretary of languages to the duke of
Orleans. In 1715 the grand-master of Malta appointed
him historiographer to that order, with all its privileges,
and the honour of wearing the cross. He was afterwards
appointed to the commandery of Santery, and would, but
for some particular reasons, not specified, have been intrusted with the education of Louis XV. His last years
were passed in much bodily infirmity, from which he was
released June 15, 1735. His literary career has in it somewhat remarkable. He was bordering on his forty- fifth year
when he wrote his first history, and had passed his seventieth when he bad finished the last, that of Malta. He
lived nine years afterwards, but under extreme languor of
| body and mind. During this, when, from the force of
habit, he talked of new projects, of the revolutions of Carthage, and the history of Poland, and his friends would
represent to him that he was now incapable both of reading
or writing, his answer was, that he had read enough to
compose by memory, and written enough to dictate with
fluency. The French regard him as their Quintus Curtius. His st)le is pleading, lively, and elegant, and hjs
reflections always just, and often profound. But he yielded
too much to imagination, wrote much from memory, which
was not always sufficiently retentive, and is often wrong in
facts, from declining the labour of research, and despising
the fastidiousness of accuracy. His works, which it is unnecessary to characterise separately, as they have been so
long before both the French and English public, are, 1.
“Histoire des Revolutions de Portugal,” Paris, i6?9, 12mo.
2. “Histoire des Revolutions de Suede,” 1696, 2 vols.
12mo. 3. “Histoire des Revolutions Romanies,” 3 vols.
12mo. 4. “histoire de Malte,” 1727, 4 vols 4to, and 7
vols. 12mo. 5. “Traité de la mouvance de Bretagne.”
6. “Hisjtoire critique de l’etablissment des Bretons dans
les Gaules,” 2 vols 12mo, a posthumous work, 1713. H
wrote also some dissertations in the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, and corresponded much with the
literati of his time on subjects of history, particularly with
earl Stanhope, on the senate of ancient Rome. His and
lord Stanhope’s Inquiry on this subject were published by
Hooke, the Roman historian, in 1757, or 1758. 1

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